The year 2024 began with Johann Rupert as Africa’s richest man, with a net worth of $10.3 billion compared to Dangote’s $9.5 billion.
This, however, would not last as Dangote quickly regained the throne, in an impressive push that saw him outperform the likes of Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates, at the end of the first month of the year.
During that period, the CEO of the profound Dangote group crossed the $20 billion mark, as his last change in valuation at the time came in at +$282 million, while his year-to-date (YTD) change was a staggering +$6.91 billion.
The reason for this impressive growth was the performance of the Dangote cement company which surpassed the N10 trillion market cap, standing as the first Nigerian company to do so.
Currently, the net worths of both billionaires tell a different tale from their January figures, with Dangote’s being way lower at $14.8 billion and Johann’s being significantly higher at $13.5 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
Their current performance based on Bloomberg’s YTD change also shows that Johann has earned $1.10 billion, while Dangote has lost $240 million.
This is despite the fact that the Dangote refinery, the world’s largest single-train refinery, has begun operations in Nigeria which is considered Africa’s largest market.
However, the Nigerian billionaire has recorded some significant wins in recent weeks. Dangote recently ranked the 6th richest manufacturing billionaire in the world. The refinery was also ranked above Europe’s ten largest refineries in capacity by Bloomberg.
There are also estimations that once the Dangote refinery is fully in operation, it could significantly dent the $17 billion European oil market.
However, the challenge for the Dangote refinery remains the Oil theft and pipeline vandalism that has persisted in the country for decades, making it difficult for the nation to satisfy the Dangote Refinery’s daily processing supply quota.
The refinery is currently operating at about 300,000 barrels per day, which is nearly half of its nameplate capacity, based on the average estimate provided by analysts at WoodMac, FGE, and Citac.
Johann, on the other hand, has increased his fortune as a result of Richemont’s consistent high-level performance.
A report by Nairametrics highlights this fact, reporting that the company’s uptick in January was attributed to Richemont’s recent financial disclosures. The strong reaction increased the company’s share price from $12.02 on January 17 to $13.47 on January 19, 2024.
For Q4, 2023, Richemont demonstrated a solid performance that successfully offset reductions in Europe, driven by impressive results in China and the US.
